I’m thinking of buying some land to build on. What’s your advice?

A. The best piece of advice where land is concerned is - think very carefully about it!

For many people, building their own property is the ultimate dream and it can be extremely satisfying. It can even be relatively cost effective; however there are a number of potential pitfalls.Employing an architect and project manager to handle the whole thing on your behalf can be pretty expensive. Alternatively, you could tackle things all on your own but do bear in mind that dealing with planning and building control departments and coordinating builders, suppliers and public utilities has the potential to turn into a real-life nightmare.

If you are one who thrives on this sort of challenge, your first step is to track down a suitable piece of land. That in itself is no easy task - after all, we live on a fairly small, crowded island.

Some estate agents – although by no means all – do deal in land. Alternatively, there are a number of websites these days that specialise in this area. Nevertheless, you need to bear in mind that buying land without planning permission can be a huge gamble – while conversely, land which already has planning permission is obviously going to come with a higher price tag.